The Panda Lily
by DylanRS
Summary: Korra and Tenzin visit the South Pole when they receive a letter notifying them of Master Katara's waning health. If you ever wondered at the circumstances of Katara's passing, this is for you.


**Spacing has been fixed. Thanks for the feedback. Enjoy :)  
**

The Panda Lily

Oogi the flying bison landed with a quiet, graceful huff as Korra slid off his side and onto the wooden deck of the terrace that was connected to the northern side of the previous Avatars home. It was a couple of hours past noon and the sun could be seen high in the sky, completely unblemished by clouds as it cast its rays over the now developed snow-covered hills and glaciers of the Southern Water Tribe. A bit less graceful than Oogi, Korra landed with an almost immediate embrace of her parents, Tonraq and Senna. The hugging lasted for ten seconds, and coat-muffled voices could be heard from it.

"We missed you so much Korra," Senna said.

"You're home," boomed Korra's father.

They broke apart, Tonraq's hand still holding his daughters shoulder as Senna leaned against him with tears threatening to spill forth from her eyes. As for Korra's, they stared back dry and unblinking. She was pleased to see her parents after so long, but the nature of her visit kept her from feeling too happy. As if to mirror this solemnity, Tenzin approached the trio from the direction of Oogi, his face unreadable. He gave a curt nod to his pupil's parents before addressing them in turn.

"Hello Senna. Tonraq. l trust you've been safe since we last saw each other."

Tonraq lowered his arm and he and his wife turned to look a him.

"Thank you Tenzin. We've only been worried about our little girl," Senna said. She didn't bring up the progress of Korra's training.

"How is she?" Tenzin asked as if he were pleading for good news. His face still showed no sign of expression.

"l thought it was clear by our letter that..." Tonraq trailed off. Tenzin nodded.

"Yours wasn't the only letter l received. l was just wondering how it was coming along."

"Of course. Would you like to see her now?" Senna asked, her eyes failing to meet his vacant ones.

"It's what l came for," Tenzin said. His voice was measured and completely steady.

"Korra?"

"You go first. She'd want to speak to you alone. Besides, there's something l need to do."

Tenzin looked into Korra's eyes inquisitively, but dismissed his confusion after a few seconds of silence. This was the first expression she'd seen him make since he'd gotten the letter that called them here.

"Very well. I'll follow you two to her. Lead the way," Tenzin said, gesturing towards Senna and Tonraq. Senna bowed before Tenzin before turning in the direction of the door that led into the home. He either didn't notice or didn't care, but Tonraq did not immediately follow.

The door inside opened, and before it closed behind Tenzin, Korra saw a woman with dark, gray-speckled hair and a complexion perfectly matching Katara's. She looked to be slightly older than Tenzin and had her arms folded on a table in front of her. Her head hung, but as Tenzin entered the room, she looked up at him with a weak smile. Just before the doors closed, she made eye contact with Korra.

"Was that Kya?" Korra asked as the door could be heard closing with a silent thud.

"Yes. That was Kya. She's already been in to see her."

"Why is she not with her now?"

"She finished crying just before you landed. They spoke, and then Kya came out of the room and told us Katara wanted to see you and Tenzin. She's been quiet ever since."

"Oh." Korra held her left arms elbow with her right hand and stared at the ground to the left of her father.

"Korra. What are you going off to do?"

"I'm not leaving. It's just...l don't know. I had dreams last night and some of them felt like more than dreams. l feel like l spoke to Aang, but l can't remember anything vivid. It's the first time I've had a real connection with the spirit world." She turned her back, walked past the spot were Oogi had landed (he had flown off to join the other bison), and leaned against the wooden top of the railing that lined the edges of the deck. Her father merely turned and followed her with his gaze. "I have to go check something...l need to."

Her father nodded, and without a word, he turned to enter the house after his wife and Tenzin.

But she did remember the dreams. It felt like last night had been an eternity, and the day before when they had received the message from her parents that Katara was dying felt like it had taken place a lifetime ago.

* * *

The end of the one hundred year war did not mark the end of all strife and trials in the world. lf it had, the Avatar wouldn't have been necessary. But the events that took place in the years following the day Sozin's Comet fueled the Phoenix Lord's sinister plot to wipe out the Earth Kingdom were a testament to the Avatars crucial existence in the fabric of both the spirit and living worlds.

Team Avatar continued to exist- for a time. With Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph in tow, Appa flew almost as far as he had before the old Fire lord's tyrannous rule came to an end before Team Avatar started to inevitably unravel. The four of them would always be friends, but lives started cropping up.

The first to drop away from the group was Toph. She had this wild ambition to travel the world and teach metal bending to earth benders that she deemed worthy of learning her prideful technique. Eventually, she "settled down" in Republic City, and started a metal bending academy that would later evolve into the cities police force. She had Lin, and her friendship with Aang continued to thrive, albeit interrupted.

So the four turned into the three. Brother and sister, along with the Avatar, continued to travel the world, righting wrongs. But they didn't always spend their time high above the clouds, going from province to province. Much of their time was consumed by troubles that arose in the ever growing Republic City. Eventually, the second member of Team Avatar took his leave, and initiated a Sword Fighting school in the heart of the city. Sokka taught the craft of sword fighting alongside various other masters, including his own master, Piandao. He and Suki, much like Toph, started a family, and thus a life together that was not void of contact with their old friend, The Avatar.

The longest segment of Team Avatar that existed after the war was the one that was comprised of Aang and Katara. For years, the two traveled the various kingdoms, preventing issues from arising through diplomacy and squelching existing physical conflicts with necessary force. The world was as balanced as the world ever gets, and the two of them continued to enjoy it together. They helped the small herd of flying bison they discovered repopulate the world. They visited ancient air temples and monuments, and fixed them up as best they could. They kept a lasting relationship with Fire Lord Zuko, although he couldn't leave the fire nation very often for being so busy running it. His tea making improved at the hand of his uncle, and he had his best friend taste test his inventions (in the earlier years, this wasn't a particularly enjoyable experience for Aang and Katara, who spent no time sugarcoating their opinion of his tea, once even spitting it straight back into his face).

But eventually, as things go, they followed the others and explored love. They had a child, and named her after Katara's mother, Kya. At first, they juggled this new adventure with their familiar world saving activities. They had a second child shortly after Aangs childhood friend Bumi died, and named him in honor of that mad genius. It got harder and harder to lead a double life, and soon, after giving birth to her third and final child, Tenzin, Katara almost settled down in the Southern Water Tribe with her family, having a second home on air temple island in Republic City that they shared with Aang.

But Aang couldn't settle down. Not quite and not yet. He was the Avatar, and his duty was to the world. He continued to travel it, and continued to have fantastic adventures-

Alone.

* * *

This was what Aang told Korra during her dream the night before. At first she didn't quite understand why he felt the need to tell her his story after the war, but as it went on, she got his message. He, as the Avatar, went through the troubles and sorrow of battling the idea that his purpose was first and foremost to keep the world in balance, and that eventually the people you meet along the way will ultimately exercise their freedom to have whatever purpose they want.

The Sun was still high in the sky, but it wasn't directly overhead like it had been when they arrived. She had been standing their, mulling things over for a period of time she couldn't remember for not having kept track of it. She knew that the people inside the house would soon call for her- they had explicitly mentioned in their letter that Katara wanted to speak to her while she had the chance. And yet she couldn't go in until she took care of certain business. She straightened herself, turned around in the direction of the door that would lead inside, and strode toward it. Before she got to it however, she deviated. Turning past the entrance, she followed a strip of wooden deck that led around the house and up a creaking staircase to a section of the house that was outside.

Her silent procession continued until she came across a courtyard that was unlike anything else in the entire South Pole. It was swathed in medium-height grass, with large pots that held various plants. How these plants had somehow lived until now in this climate was anyone else's guess, but Korra already knew. She stopped in the middle of the courtyard and looked around. The plants and foliage were already starting to die. She perfected her stance, close her eyes, and breathed in slowly through her nose. When she opened them, the plants already looked like they had a greener, happier air to them.

She smiled.

Around the courtyard were very many doors. Probably somewhere between twenty and thirty of them. But Korra was not lost. This "manor" was very familiar to her, despite the fact that she'd never set foot inside before this afternoon. She's seen it in her dream.

She stepped forward, and reached out to turn the knob in the double door directly to the front and in the middle. It was wide and ornate; covered in artfully crafted etchings of various symbolic tokens of each of the four nations. Her hand closed around the knob, and she closed her eyes tight.

* * *

Moonlight streamed in from gaps between the curtains that covered the large, wall sized window that was mounted on the far side of Katara's room. She herself was cast in shadow, but parts of the room, along with certain sections of her bed, were ablaze with white, steady light. It was a full moon, and hours previously Katara had put her three children to bed before climbing into her own. She was wide awake, and her thoughts were a war between motherly worry and loneliness. With Aang away, she always felt like the house could burn down any second, or a huge avalanche could knock them off the side of their glacier without a second thought into the ocean, or that they would simply freeze, or be attacked by bandits or- or- ...There were no bandits that she knew of in the South Pole. And an avalanche didn't make sense since they were on a flat shelf of ice, and even if they were swept into the ocean, she was a master water bender.

No, they were safe. But this was only Katara's logical side speaking. What was Aang doing right now? The last thing she'd remember doing with him on her final mission involved rebel fire benders. Aang was powerful but anything could happen.

She lifted the sheets from herself and rose from her bed before striding over to the curtains. She would move them and lean against the glass to stare out into the night and think. But when she did this, something caught her eye. It looked like a glass vase with something sticking out of it.

She let the cold, biting air enter her room and exchanged places with it by entering the night. With the window closed behind her, she walked across the wooden terrace to take a closer look. On the wooden railing was a vase with a bouquet- an ENTIRE bouquet of Panda Lilies.

They were flowing in the wind and threatened to fly right off the side of the railing and plunge into the icy waters below. She quickly ran forward and scooped them up. They were absolutely beautiful. She was immediately whisked away into a reminiscent state as she recalled the time Aang climbed Mt. Makapu in order to procure a single one of these rare flowers to then confess his love for her. He had then discovered that the volcano was indeed active and, leaving the panda lilies behind, hastened back to the nearby village to warn them of the danger.

"Aang," She half whispered before clutching the vase to her chest as if hugging the Avatar himself. She felt safe.

From that night on, she would occasionally wake up in the morning to find a single panda lily left for her out on the deck in the nighttime. it was Aangs way of showing that he'd come to visit in the night to make sure she and the family was safe. it was Katara's way of knowing he was keeping a watchful eye on them, and every time she found one out on the terrace she welled with happiness before moving it to its new home among the other Panda Lilies in the new section of her garden. Aang himself visited regularly, but neither of them ever mentioned the lilies to each other. It was their unspoken bond.

"How are they still alive?" Katara's eldest son asked in wonder around the age of seven one dark, cloudy afternoon in the worst kind of winter the South Pole has to offer.

"Watch." She said.

And watch he did, wide eyed. He gasped as Katara stood in the center of the garden and performed complex, flowing movements. The Lilies danced.

"l can control them with water bending see? All living things have water. A woman once taught me to take it from things as l needed it. But now I've perfected manipulating the water for good," Bumi looked up at his mother in impressed astonishment. "I just keep the water flowing from the ice below our house and warm it to keep the flowers alive."

"But but...You don't always do this...How do they stay alive all the time?"

"I'm always connected with them."

Bumi still had that astonished expression but now had his mouth hanging open slightly. She soon taught Kya, her daughter and the only one of her children who could water bend how to periodically tend to the garden and keep the plants alive. This was how she could still travel the world occasionally. She taught a few others this specialized technique for when Kya was on leave as well. Bumi would spend his time hanging over his brother and sister to watch them bend, and learned to swordfight and chi-block from his Uncle Sokka. But he'd always stare in the same astonishment as he watched his sister, Kya, bend the flowers.

"Couldn't you also take the water from them? And use the water for something else? And don't l have water inside me? Couldn't you, couldn't you, couldn't you..." Was what Bumi often barraged Kya with.

"I suppose...But mother hasn't taught me anything like that." Was her usual general reply.

* * *

Korra turned the knob and opened the double doors. What she saw before her was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen.

Rows upon rows of Panda Lilies. This courtyard seemed to be about twenty feet by twenty but it was filled to the brim with Lilies, broken only by a pathway that weaved among them and a small square of grass in the center. Korra had seen this section of the garden during her dream but it had been very underdeveloped. It seemed as though Aang had stayed busy...

She walked among the flowers and spun her head around to take it all in. After what seemed like a millennia, she was broken from her beauty induced trance by the sound of the double doors at the front of the garden swinging open.

"Korra? Please. She wants to see you." Tenzin said. ,

"Ok." Was all she said, her back to him. After a pause, she turned around and looked into his face. It was still unreadable, but his eyes had an unmistaken strain to them. Ringing them, she could detect the faintest of red. This didn't surprise her in principal, but she was slightly taken aback.

"Come." He said gruffly.

She followed him back to the room where she'd glimpsed Kya. It was much larger than it seemed from the outside, and she could see Kya off to the far side, sitting with Korra's parents on a series of floor mats next to a crackling fire. They were talking, but she didn't hear them which was fine since at the moment she didn't care much to.

Tenzin opened another door up against the wall parallel to the one that the entrance to the house was mounted on and ushered Korra inside. Before she passed the threshold, she looked up at him expectantly and found a stony expression staring toward the door leading outside. Slightly confused, she entered the room alone.

"Hello Korra." Katara rasped.

The first thing Korra noticed was Katara. On the side of the room opposite the door was a single-person bed, almost like the ones in an infirmary. Katara lay on it, with the blanket up to her stomach, her arms folded on her chest and her head slightly raises on several pillows. Next to the bed was a night stand empty except for a thin, empty vase. Light shown in from an unseen source on the wall behind Katara.

"Hello Master Katara."

"Please," Katara chuckled. "The last thing I want right now is the Avatar calling me 'master."' She stared up at Korra's sad face and hurried to clarify, "Just Katara."

"Katara..."

"Sit." She beckoned to a chair that stood slightly askew next to the bed. It was being blasted by light. When Korra took her seat in what must have had Kya, followed by Tenzin as its occupant, she was hit with another sad pang as she looked at the wall behind Katara. it had an open window that was blocked by a wooden protrusion that held the bed in place so that the window couldn't be seen from the door. It was Sunset.

Katara raised her hand up and looked at it, ablaze with orange light. "I wonder what it would have been like to Fire Bend." She paused. "One of the many things in my life that I'll never have experienced but wonder at." She lowered her hand. "But I had a good life. I'm joining my friends."

Korra stared at Katara with a blank expression. Katara chuckled again.

"You know, I remember many years ago, Avatar Aang infuriated me because water bending came so much easier to him at the time. I was jealous. But then I became his water bending master TWICE- ...ha!"

Korra gave a weak smile.

"Korra, I just wanted to tell you that I love you like a daughter and I'm sure you'll keep balance in the world like Aang did. You were an amazing water bending student- better than Aang," She winked at this, "And you'll go on to have a long and happy life, just like I did."

"l-...", Korra stammered out, "I..." the second 'I' was less motivated. Tears began to well up in Korra's eyes. She flung herself forward and embraced Katara. Katara lifted her arms up in shock, her eyes wide, and lowered them to hug Korra back, her expression softening. They hugged for about twenty seconds before Katara coughed and wheezed. Korra let up on her lung area but hugged harder where it wouldn't do damage.

"This is it. Goodbye Korra." Korra looked up at Katara's face, tears streaming, and then closed her eyes again tightly, causing a fresh wave of tears to embolden the river that poured down her face that was buried in Katara's blanket.

Katara's eyes were reduced to slits. Korra's arms trembled slightly, but then stopped moving altogether, along with her sobs shuddering into silence. Katara opened her eyes wide enough to check to see what was wrong.

Korra's face was expressionless. It was completely vacant of any emotion, which was an utter contrast to the completely broken down one just moments before. Just when Katara was going to shake Korra to see if she was still awake, her face contorted. After a second, it slacked, and Korra rose from Katara, into her chair, eyes still closed. They weren't tightly shut. On the contrary, they were barely even closed.

Katara stared into Korra's closed eyes. Another second passed, and then-

Korra's eyes snapped open with force. Where a blue pupil surrounded by white could be seen before, they were consumed by an unbroken, bluish white, and Katara was staring at thousands of souls culminating together in order to provoke the Avatar State. Korra rose from her chair, but not onto her feet. She was levitating off the floor by about four inches. Her knees were slightly bent on account of her sitting position just moments before. The blue-white light shone brilliantly from her eyes and Katara, hair billowing, shielded her own as the light grew stronger than she could handle.

When she lowered her arm and opened her eyes-

"Aang," Katara breathed. She looked like she could hardly believe her eyes. They were already welling up.

"Katara," Aangs deep voice boomed.

He leaned forward and clasped Katara's hand in his own. Katara immediately pulled him forward, and an embrace occurred exactly the way Korra's embrace was, except Katara was the one initiating it and Aang was the one who started off shocked but then joined in as if he'd planned it himself.

Still locked in embrace, Katara spoke. "l wanted to see you one last time...It's one of the reasons I asked for Korra to come here...but l didn't think..."

"Don't be so sure this will be the last time you see me."

Katara hugged him tighter. Aang spoke again.

"l brought Korra here so I could see you. I visited her in her dreams last night."

Katara pulled away from Aang, but her arms were still intertwined with his. They stared into each others eyes for a moment before Katara spoke.

"You were the boy in the iceberg...who changed my life forever."

"And you were the pretty-for-a-spirit water tribe girl who agreed to go penguin sledding with me." He smiled into her eyes, his face laden with a warm, inviting expression.

"I'm so happy- I..." But she fell silent and simply continued to stare into his eyes. Aang pulled Katara into another embrace. They hugged for what seemed like five seconds, except it lasted for about two minutes. Feeling Katara begin to slack, Aang lowered her into the bed, and when she was completely lying down, he still had her in a half-embrace.

Korra lifted herself from Katara and stared at her face. It was frozen in a subtle, content smile. She rose from the bedside and started for the door, but she paused for a second with her back to Katara, and bent forward. She then straightened herself, and walked toward the door which she opened and close silently. She slumped onto a bench up against the wall next to the door on the outside of the room, and clutched her forehead in exhaustion. It was the first time she'd entered the Avatar state.

Back in the room, the vase on the nightstand was no longer empty. It had a single, full bloom Panda Lily.


End file.
